School Enrollment of Recently Arrived Immigrant Youth: A Reflection of Educational Progress before Migration

Richard A. Fry, Pew Research Center

Recently arrived immigrant adolescents are much less likely to be enrolled in high school than their foreign-born peers that arrived early in childhood or native-born adolescents. The wider literature on school dropping out shows that prior educational difficulties strongly predict current dropout status. I document the overwhelming importance of educational difficulties prior to migration in understanding the high dropout rates of recently arrived immigrant youth. About 6% of foreign-born youth are recently arrived immigrants that lagged in school before they migrated. Yet such youth account for nearly 40% of all young foreign-born high school dropouts. Recently arrived immigrant youth that were “on grade” before departing for the U.S. are just as likely as early arrivals to be in high school. The high nonenrollment rates of recently arrived immigrant adolescents with educational difficulties before migration are strongly related to employment activity. Teen motherhood has little bearing on dropping out among these youth.